Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too… depending upon weather conditions.

Aloha Paragraphs

Kiholo Bay…Big Island

A cold front will bring showers to Kauai
and eventually Oahu…drier elsewhere
in the state through Thursday

Strengthening northeast winds over the
western islands with light east to
southeast winds elsewhere

Wet trade winds Friday and Saturday,
with more widespread rainfall over Kauai
and Oahu Sunday – spreading to the rest
of the state early next week…potentiallyvery wet from a Kona low pressure system
to our west

Small Craft Wind Advisory…around Kauai

Flood Advisory…Kauai

The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions…as of Wednesday evening:

Winds quite light from the east on the eastern islands, locally stronger from the northeast over the western islands. Here’s the latestweather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. Here’s a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific…centered on the Hawaiian Islands. ~~~ We find low pressure systems far to the north and northeast of the islands…with the tail-end of a trailing cold front near Kauai. At the same time, we see high pressure systems well offshore to the east-northeast of Hawaii, and far northwest…with ridges extending into the area northwest and northeast of Hawaii. We’ll find northeast winds blowing, as this weak cold front dips into the western islands of the chain…eventually becoming quite strong with time. The other islands to the southeast of the front, will continue to see light and variable winds for the most part. A trade wind flow will begin across the state late Thursday or Friday into Saturday. A new Kona low pressure system will move into the area west of Kauai Sunday into early next week, bringing back lighter southeast breezes. Satellite imageryshows patchy low clouds over and around the state in places, along with generally clear skies locally, and brighter white, higher level clouds…associated with a cold front around Kauai. We can see those clouds associated with a cold front near Kauai, which are dropping showers…a few of which are heavy with even a few thunderstorms. Here’s thelooping radar image, showing just a few light showers coming into the state, most concentrated around Kauai…which are locally heavy. Looking at this largersatellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see an area of deep clouds to our west through north, along with the middle and high level clouds moving northeast over Kauai. These clouds appear to be working their way down towards Oahu, while Maui County and the Big Island remain generally dry for the time being.

This cold front should remain near Kauai for the time being…and then slide down towards Oahu later Thursday. We’re expecting fairly dry weather conditions to prevail to the southeast of this frontal boundary, although with a few showers locally, especially over the slopes during the afternoon hours. The frontal cloud band will keep a few showers falling around Kauai too. As we get into Thursday, this front will carry an increased amount of showers to the windward sides on Kauai and Oahu…on the strengthening trade winds into Saturday. The rest of the state will get into this windward shower activity as well, although the leeward sides should be drier and more sunny in most areas.

The latest model output suggests that the trade winds will falter again Sunday into early next week, with lighter southeasterly breezes. Those same models are now suggesting that we’ll have a Kona low pressure system forming to the west of the state late this weekend into early next week. It should be pointed out that anytime we have that type of low pressure system located to the west of us, with its counter-clockwise winds, there’s always that possibility of very wet weather, with a potential for localized flooding rainfall…stay tuned. I’ll be back many times during the day with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Wednesday wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula, Maui weather tower, the air temperature was 51.6F degrees at 550amon this early Wednesday morning. It’s just now getting light enough, that I can see that our recent bout of thick vog, has lost its grip on us! Glancing down the mountain into the Central Valley, and across the Valley to the West Maui Mountains at 640am…I don’t see any volcanic haze. This is a good thing, as many folks find this haze detrimental to their health. The air temperature, under totally clear skies, was still cool at 51.3 degrees.

~~~ Here it is 950am, and skies are partly cloudy, while the air temperature has risen to 65.7 degrees. It’s amazing how quickly yesterdays vog has been ventilated away. I just talked to a friend on the telephone, who lives over on the windward side of east Maui, and she said that she has white caps on the ocean surface there. Despite the forecast for light and variable winds, it appears that we actually have some form of trade winds blowing now. I’m about to drive down to Kahului, as I need new tires on my car, so I’ll be back early this afternoon with your next new installment of these specific updates from Maui.

~~~ It’s early afternoon, with a little volcanic haze having moved back in, although nothing like what we saw yesterday. The air temperature is 72.5 degrees, under partly cloudy skies. I just came back up the mountain from getting tires, and am glad to be back home. I’m going to go juice some wheat grass, broccoli leaves, parsley, and kale…and drink that along with a few bites of fresh carrot and beet. I’ll check back in with you in a little while. Did anyone like that cat video below?

~~~ We’ve now moved into the early evening hours, with the air temperature running 68.2 degrees at 520pm. It got cloudy here in Kula again this afternoon, what else is new, but I didn’t see even a drop of rain. Looking down towards the Central Valley, I can see a little volcanic haze back around now, although not all that heavy. All the rainfall is occurring up near Kauai this evening, with even a thunderstorm, associated with that cold front up that way. I’ve been referring to a fairly significant rainfall event late Sunday into early next week…that still appears to be on track at this point. One more thing, now that its 630pm, as I was out watching the sunset just now, there was finally a few rain drops that fell, although few and far between…with an air temperature of 65.5 degrees.

Interesting:Climate Change and Human Health – Sea level rises, changes to the severity of monsoon seasons and rainfall, flooding, droughts and heat waves are all having an increasing impact on human health, writes Geordon Shannon.

The loss of healthy life years in low-income African countries is predicted to be 500 times that in Europe.

It is beyond doubt that our emissions of greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. And climate change is making us sick.

The World Health Organization estimates that between 1970 and 2004, the environmental effects of climate change caused more than 140,000 deaths each year.

And the direct financial cost of the damage it will have on our health is estimated to come in at around US $2-4 billion in just over 15 years time.

Extreme weather events

We tend to think of large-scale weather events as ‘natural’ disasters, but the case is increasingly being made for a man-made cause and effect for some of these.

While it is difficult to attribute single events such as Hurricane Katrina to climate change, climatologists have suggested a possible role in contributing to the intensity of these kinds of events. And flooding, droughts, heat waves, and the spread of disease have all been linked to climate change.

In the UK, adverse weather events already have a palpable public presence. Only last year, a prolonged heat wave claimed around 650 excess deaths in England.

Heat wave risk ‘doubled’

And according to the authors of a report on the disastrous 2003 heat wave that claimed 20,000 lives across Europe, it is “very likely” that human influence has at least doubled the risk of another particularly bad one happening again.

Julia Slingo, the Met Office’s chief scientist, said that the evidence suggests climate change is likely to be a factor, in the severe weather that has caused torrential rain and flooding in the south of England over the past two months.

Since December there have been 130 severe flood warnings (compared to nine in 2012) which not only poses an immediate physical risk to people, but also threatens to undermine the country’s food security.

And such climatic events are occurring with increasing severity and frequency across the globe.

Love your site! I read it regularly from Seattle. We are coming to Kaanapali Saturday for a week. Your forecast isn’t making me too happy! Can you make me feel better? Also, snorkel trip to Lanai planned Sunday. Would you reschedule for another day next week?

Mahalo,

Robyn~~~Hi Robyn, good to hear from you. I can understand your concern, and what I’d say would be to stay tuned to adjustments to the forecast, and be prepared for the weather to go one way or another. It won’t be completely rainy while you are here, nor will it be completely dry. Fortunately, you are right next door to Lahaina, which is one of the driest areas on the island! As for snorkeling, I think you won’t have a problem with that, as the surf will be small and gentle. Finally, coming from Seattle, you will love it here, it’s the tropics, and you will go back with a warm afterglow! Have a great time! Aloha, Glenn